We have very demanding, time consuming jobs, so we think buy-and-hold rental properties are a better fit for us than wholesaling, flipping, etc.  

Numbers are easy, rent is the necessary loan amount or amount due the seller.Sounds like this is residential, financing an option is a consumer financing agreement.

There are developers, builders, rehab operations or consumers who seek money and go belly up or hit some wall and they need to cover their tail with their investors, we have one here on BP.

Since this is a new and fairly exciting industry to me, I have yet to jump ship.However, since the restaurant industry is so exhausting and time consuming, my attention is gravitating back to the real estate industry as a way to make passive income.

They pay people fortunes to choose which colors go together and are liked by consumers, take advantage of it.

Do you think homeowners and investors may be slightly disillusioned in their "consumer confidence" due to the high headline gains?..

Mentoring is a skil and very time consuming and as one person mentioned you may be developing a competitor.

If your DTI was out of whack because of other cash flowing properties that you hadn't held long enough to count towards income that's one thing, but if the problem is consumer debt that's another.

Aside from consumer debt and mortgages for personal residence, do they count things like lines of credit, active credit cards, etc?

They make consumer products in a "hit driven" market.